Today marks five months since the start of the current Russian invasion of Ukraine, an invasion that began with very ambitious goals.<\/p>\n
Putin wanted to seize all of Ukraine and turn it into a puppet of Russia<\/big><\/p>\n On the first day of the invasion, Vladimir Putin himself outlined his goals: to \"demilitarize\" and \"denazify\" Ukraine<\/a>, which, translating from the Kremlin's propaganda language into common language, meant that the Russian dictator wanted to take over the entire country and turn it into into a Russian puppet.<\/strong> That meant decapitating the Ukrainian government and putting a Moscow-appointed government in its place. To that end, Russia launched airborne forces at Hostomel Airport, in Kiev<\/a>, ostensibly to control the Ukrainian capital and secure a key point for a larger-scale airborne landing.<\/p>\n The failure of the taking of Kiek by the Russians<\/big><\/p>\n However, Russia lost the Battle of Hostomel<\/a>. Following the Ukrainian counterattack, the Russian forces were defeated at that airport and forced to withdraw. At the end of March, in just one month, the Russian invasion had already caused more civilian casualties than the war in the Donbass in 5 years<\/a>. That had been one of the excuses used by the Kremlin to justify the invasion, launching the hoax that Ukraine was a \"genocide\" in Donbass<\/a> (a hoax that Putin had already launched against Georgia<\/a> to justify the Russian invasion of that country in 2008). On March 25, after a month of invasion, Russia accepted its failure and withdrew from northern Ukraine<\/a>, ending its offensive against Kiev.<\/p>\n The few and costly advances of the Russians in the Donbass<\/big><\/p>\n Since then, Russia has concentrated its military action on three fronts:<\/strong> conquering eastern Ukraine, launching indiscriminate air strikes against the civilian population in the rest of the country, and blocking the export of Ukrainian grain. To this day, the Russian offensive in the Donbass is stalled<\/strong>, after making very small gains at very high costs. The attacks against the civilian population and the blockade of grain exports, with the consequent risk of global famine, have only served to convey the image of Russia as a terrorist state<\/strong> that believes that anything goes, including war crimes, to obtain some success in an invasion that does not achieve its objectives.<\/p>\n Russia is leaving the prestige of its armed forces on the floor<\/big><\/p>\n In addition to not fulfilling its military objectives, the so-called \"demilitarization\" is further away than ever. The invasion has prompted several Western countries to send military aid to Ukraine<\/strong>, an unprecedented aid since World War II. To make matters worse, militarily Russia has shown that it was an overrated power<\/strong>. It has shown that her military hardware is outdated, its troops are unmotivated and ill-prepared, its logistics are a mess, and its military doctrine is out of date. With this invasion, Putin has shattered the prestige of his armed forces.<\/strong> A prestige further damaged by the cases of war crimes, rape and looting committed by the Russians in Ukraine.<\/p>\n Russia has had more deaths in 5 months than it had in Afghanistan in 10 years<\/big><\/p>\n As for the figures of the war, this Friday the US has estimated that 15,000 Russian soldiers have died and 45,000 have been wounded<\/a>. These are figures that lower the estimates published by Ukraine, but are still huge. During the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (1979-1989), the invaders had 14,453 dead and 53,753 wounded<\/a>. Thus, Russia would have more deaths in Ukraine in 5 months than in Afghanistan in 10 years.<\/strong> Let us remember that the invasion of Afghanistan ended in Soviet failure.<\/p>\n The Russians have lost 24% of their soldiers and 33.8% of their active tanks<\/big><\/p>\n The material losses are also considerable. The website Oryxspioenkop.com<\/a>, which has been documenting with images the losses of both sides since February 24, indicates today that Russia has already lost 4,794 military vehicles, including 882 tanks<\/strong>, 272 of which have been captured by the Ukrainians. Some think that such a figure is irrelevant for Russia, but it is not true. The Russian Federation has a standing army of about 250,000 servicemen and 2,609 tanks, according to its Table of Organization and Equipment (TOE)<\/a>. Thus, in just five months Russia would have already lost 24% of its soldiers and 33.8% of its active tanks<\/strong>, and that taking into account the estimates of the aforementioned website, which are downwards. Those figures are a huge loss for Russia.<\/strong><\/p>\n Ukraine has managed to capture more Russian tanks than it has lost in this invasion<\/big><\/p>\n
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